The Meeting
by Ezekeel
Summary: The first encounter of Bookman and Lavi.


**The Meeting**

The old man recently lost an apprentice for reasons no one needs to know. He may not have died as death isn't the only means for losing the title of apprentice.

Bookman gets off the train. He passes by a red head kid fighting with the older kids. He didn't stop but saw the odd eyes of the little boy. One is covered by a loosely wrapped bandage but he still saw the color in those eyes and the look the little boy gave as he defends himself.

The old man meets up with the keeper who will transport the records back at their clan. Afterwards, he walks back to the building where he'll be staying for a few days to record. The field is his to view but things will be recorded afterwards.

On the way, he encounters the boy again who recently stole from a young lad who chased after him. He wouldn't bother but he was hit in the chase as the boy hid behind him pretending that the old man is his grandfather. The Bookman didn't say anything as the lad spoke curses and a 'Teach him...'

Bookman walks away from the scene while the little boy follows as if drawn by a tune that was not played.

The old man enters the building with the boy still following. He closes the door on the boy as if he didn't even know or see that the boy was there. He just ignores him and does away with work.

He talks in a foreign language with a strange man who left after an hour.

The little boy is still there out the door and seems to have listened to what he could.

"Can I come with you?"

"No."

"You finally spoke."

"Brat."

"Old man."

The door is closed and the old man left the next day with the little boy still on his tail.

"Where I am going is no place for a child."

"The dead."

"I'm not dead, fool."

"The battlefield. The dead. You're a Bookman."

"What is it to you?"

"Let me go with you. I'll help you carry those things. I just want to leave that town."

"And what of your family?"

"I've none. None of us do."

* * *

Bookman leaves the boy. The war he recorded still affected that town at the end. Almost all of the people there had died except for the escaped few.

The old man returns to record the rest. He finds the little boy is still alive if being wounded and still breathing somehow in a rundown building counts. He is one of the few survivors and he really is strange for a boy his age. He seems so calm and accepting of the situation. He fights for his life but you won't see obvious agony in his face nor anger... nor any form of expression at all.

When he saw the old man, he smiled as if knowing things.

"You want to know what happened," the little boy states with confidence.

_Cocky brat._

The old man says with his eyes while staring at the little boy who returns it with merely a smile as if playing innocent.

"Why should I trust words of a brat like you?"

"I won't lie."

"Why would you want to tell me?"

"I won't ask you to let me go with you but teach me how to read or write," says the young boy. It was no question nor plea. He wanted to learn one or the other.

"You're not literate."

"So what? I still know things even if I don't."

"It will depend on what you tell me."

The boy's face lighten up after hearing the old man say that. He may not have been fazed by the war but any sort of knowledge seems to put him in a good mood.

The little boy talks and talks of all the things he saw in the war and what he heard of it in and out of the town. The descriptions were told in so much detail as if the boy still sees it.

The boy later unexpectedly blurts out a truth about Bookman.

"Where did you hear that, boy?" the old man asks with a raised look.

"I don't need to tell you."

"You will tell me."

"Fine."

* * *

"What do you wish to do in life?"

"Know."

"Why?"

"Kids, brats, they're never told anything. I want to know. I want to see the world like you do."

"How'd you know?"

"I can read you. You're clothes say it, your movements and the way you spoke. You know things."

"Pretty observant for a brat."

"Not that hard, old man," the boy said cockily with his tongue out which only earned him a hit in the head.

_Smack_.

* * *

Ezekeel: This is a glimpse of how could their meeting has been like? I have a lot of ideas on it and this is one if it that came in written format. Hope you guys enjoyed it :D Do tell me what you think of it. Any form of feedback/comment will do.

If it wasn't clear, the last part was just one of the conversations while they talk as Lavi recovers from his wounds.

Thanks for reading :D

(I do acknowledge the fact that the first I heard of the theory that the apprentice of Bookman before Lavi may not have died came from Beautymoon who writes lovely and wonderful fics... I really assumed that the apprentice was dead but this theory's only on the first part and who knows what may really have happened but the author)

Good day! :D


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